Ed Sheeran Learns the Power of the Word ‘Adele’

Last night (July 9th) on NBC’s Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, singer Ed Sheeran set the record straight on his somewhat controversial (to Adele fans) comments regarding his ambition to one day sell more records than fellow Brit singer Adele.

Back in February, in an interview with GQ magazine, Ed was explaining how he wakes up to check sales figures and wonders what he needs to do to bring them up to the level he aspires them to be.

“I did 14 million of x and I want to do 20 million of ÷. I know music isn’t about competition, and you’ll get old rockers saying, ‘Why does he care about numbers and figures?’ but I’ve made my album. I love my album. It’s the best album I could have made – it’s the best creative thing – so why not want to win? Why not want to sell 20 million?” he asked.

When asked whether or not he felt any sort of competition with another artist, only one came to mind.

“Adele is the one person who’s sold more records than me in the past ten years. She’s the only person I need to sell more records than. That’s a big f—— feat because her last album sold 20 million. But if I don’t set her as the benchmark then I’m selling myself short.”

In last night’s interview with Kelly, Ed explains that he faced a little backlash over those statements.

“I feel like me saying this, a lot of people were like, ‘That’s such an arrogant thing to say,'” Sheeran told Megyn Kelly. “I think you need to choose someone that’s at the top of their game. Like, I probably won’t sell 20 million records. And I probably won’t ever be as big as Adele. But if you don’t aim for the top of the mountain, how are you ever gonna get halfway?”

Sheeran went on to explain that the short bite was taken out of context and spread like wildfire.

“The problem is, my point never comes across with that. That quote is now just ‘I want to be bigger than Adele,'” Sheeran explains.

“The word Adele is just something that no one should f— with, basically,” he admits with an uneasy smile. “If you put that in any sentence, prepare to be shut down.”